Fourth Consideration. On the Love Jesus Christ Bears Us.
Consider the love with which Jesus Christ our Lord suffered so much in this world, and especially in the Garden of Olives and upon Mount Calvary. This love had you in view, and through all those pains and labours it obtained from God the Father good resolutions and holy promises for your heart; it also obtained all that is necessary for you to maintain, nourish, strengthen, and perfect these resolutions. O resolutions! how precious you are, since you are the fruit of my Saviour’s Passion! Oh! how greatly my soul ought to cherish you, since you are so dear to my Jesus! Alas! O Saviour of my soul! You died to gain my resolutions for me: grant me, then, the grace to die rather than lose them.
Think well upon it, my Philothea: it is certain that from the tree of the Cross the heart of our Lord Jesus saw yours, and loved it; and that by this love He obtained for it all the good things you have received, and ever shall receive, among them your resolutions. Yes, dear Philothea, we can all say with Jeremiah: _O Lord, before I was, Thou didst regard me, and call me by my name;_ therefore it was indeed He who, in His love and mercy, prepared for us all the general and particular means we have for our salvation, and consequently our dear resolutions. Yes, just as a pregnant woman prepares the cradle, the swaddling clothes and bands, and even a nurse for the child she hopes to have, although it is not yet in the world; so Our Lord, having conceived you in His goodness, and intending to bring you forth unto salvation and make you His daughter, prepared upon the tree of the Cross all that you needed: your spiritual cradle, your swaddling clothes and bands, your nurse, and all that was suited to your happiness. These are all the means, all the attractions, all the graces with which He guides your soul and draws it unto perfection.
Consider the love with which Jesus Christ our Lord suffered so much in this world, and especially in the Garden of Olives and upon Mount Calvary. This love had you in view, and through all those pains and labours it obtained from God the Father good resolutions and holy promises for your heart; it also obtained all that is necessary for you to maintain, nourish, strengthen, and perfect these resolutions. O resolutions! how precious you are, since you are the fruit of my Saviour’s Passion! Oh! how greatly my soul ought to cherish you, since you are so dear to my Jesus! Alas! O Saviour of my soul! You died to gain my resolutions for me: grant me, then, the grace to die rather than lose them.
Think well upon it, my Philothea: it is certain that from the tree of the Cross the heart of our Lord Jesus saw yours, and loved it; and that by this love He obtained for it all the good things you have received, and ever shall receive, among them your resolutions. Yes, dear Philothea, we can all say with Jeremiah: _O Lord, before I was, Thou didst regard me, and call me by my name;_ therefore it was indeed He who, in His love and mercy, prepared for us all the general and particular means we have for our salvation, and consequently our dear resolutions. Yes, just as a pregnant woman prepares the cradle, the swaddling clothes and bands, and even a nurse for the child she hopes to have, although it is not yet in the world; so Our Lord, having conceived you in His goodness, and intending to bring you forth unto salvation and make you His daughter, prepared upon the tree of the Cross all that you needed: your spiritual cradle, your swaddling clothes and bands, your nurse, and all that was suited to your happiness. These are all the means, all the attractions, all the graces with which He guides your soul and draws it unto perfection.
Ah! my God, how deeply we should engrave this in our memory: Is it possible that I have been loved, and so tenderly loved by my Saviour, that He was pleased to think of me in particular, and in all these little circumstances by which He drew me unto Himself? How much, then, ought we not to love, cherish, and turn all this to our profit? What can be sweeter than this thought: the loving heart of my God thought of Philothea, loved her, and procured for her a thousand means of salvation, as though He had no other soul in the world to think of: even as the sun, when it illuminates one spot of the earth, illuminates it no less than if it illuminated that spot alone; so Our Lord thought and laboured for all His dear children, in such wise that He thought of each of them as though He thought not of the others. _He loved me_, says Saint Paul, _and gave Himself for me_, as if he said, for me alone, and as much as if He had done nothing for the rest of mankind. This, Philothea, should be engraved in your soul, that you may cherish and nourish well your resolution, which has been so precious to the Saviour’s heart.